Haunted Scotland

The Creatures of Glamis Castle

The most famous haunted castle of Spooky Scotland is propably Glamis Castle. Since 1372, the castle has been the family home of the Earls of Strathmore. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was the youngest daughter of the 14th Earl, and princess Margaret was born there (1930).

The castle has a gruesome history: in the 11the century, king Malcolm III was murdered here... and so was king Duncan in Shakespeare's cursed play Macbeth. In the 16th century, the widow of a Lord of Glamis, lady Janet Douglas, was burned at the stake as a witch, because she attempted to kill King James V. Count Beardie is playing cards with Satan in a locked room, where once some unknown but terrible secret was hidden. This could have something to do with the monstrous creature that was born around 1816 in Glamis and lived there for more than a hundred years...

The Creature is also still haunting Glamis, but don't let him spoil your meal in the Victorian Kitchen Restaurant, that recently received a Silver Award from Eat Scotland!

The Red Room of Borthwick

Borthwick Castle's Red Room spooked so many visitors that in the 1980's an Edinburgh priest was called by the owners to exorcise the lingering spirits of, among many others, Maria Stuart. The famous Queen of Scots was frequently seen wandering the stony spiral staircases of the castle where she once sought a refuge and she also walked through the walls of the Red Room where she once had slept. Mary was disguised as a boy... or she had the crew cut of a woman who was soon to be beheaded. A young servant girl returned frequently to the Red Room where she was put to the sword. The girl bore an illegitimate Borthwick son and had to be killed together with her baby, because of potential threats to the title. A Borthwick chancellor used the niches of the Red Room for his safes. When the Borthwicks discovered he was embezzling money from them, they burned him to death.

The Ghosts of Culloden

April 16, 1746... The Battle of Culloden is the final clash between the Jacobites - most of them Highland Scots - and the British. The Jacobites supported the claim of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" to the throne. The so-called "Young Pretender" was defeated, left Britain and went to Rome. The aftermath of the battle was very brutal and the civil penalties also were severe: the Highlanders' clan system was attacked by new laws, and the highland dress was forbidden.

There still are many ghosts at Culloden Moor: anniversary ghosts, for example, who return on the 16 April and make themselves heard by their battle cries or the clash of steel on steel. Bonnie Prince Charlie is still grieving his defeat at nearby Culloden House. There doesn't grow any heather over the graves of the Jacobites and there are no birds singing at the battlefield since, on the eve of the battle, a huge black bird was seen and heard by the Jacobite Commander Lord George Murray. This Great Scree of Culloden Moor is reported to bring bad luck. And then there is this tall Highlander ghost with a drawn weary face, who - when you meet him - will quietly whisper: "Defeated..."